Marc Myers writes daily on jazz legends and legendary jazz recordings

April 23, 2012

Erroll Garner: London, 1964

I'm on the road this week for the Wall Street Journal. Which is neither here nor there when it comes to why you're here at JazzWax now. So, I can think of no better way to start the week than with 35 minutes of Erroll Garner, filmed in London in 1964. In jazz, there are pianists. And there is Erroll Garner. That's Eddie Calhoun on bass and Kelly Martin on drums. Special thanks to John Cooper for passing along this clip...

In today's Wall Street Journal, I write about the rise of Latin boogaloo in New York in the early 1960s and how the music is being kept alive today by younger artists and DJs, and older masters like Johnny Colon. You'll only find this article in New York editions of the paper's "Greater New York" section or online here.

Errol Garner - one of the many great pianists from Pittsburgh [or very nearby], a list which also includes Earl Hines, Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams [grew up there], Dodo Marmarosa, Johnny Costa, Ahmad Jamal, Sonny Clark, Horace Parlan, Shirley Scott[started on paino, then organ] and Geri Allen. What is it about that city that engendered so many fine players ?

Not to forget classical pianist Earl Wild, Oscar Levant (close friend of Gershwin), Ray Brown, hard bop piano virtuoso Bill Heid, and of course Art Blakey who started out as a pianist before switching to the drum set.
I see you love jazz as much as I do. Big cheers.

About

Marc Myers writes on music and the arts for The Wall Street Journal. He is author of "Why Jazz Happened" (Univ. of California Press). Founded in 2007, JazzWax is a Jazz Journalists Association's "Blog of the Year" winner.